Devices that Bruise

For a Topics in Ubiquitous Computing class, a colleague and I were interested in helping people get out of being in a bad mood. Typically when someone is in a bad mood, it does not improve the situation to directly tell them. Instead, subtle feedback may be better. We created the concept of alerting people they were in a bad mood by using an ambient display. “Bad mood” could be detected in a few ways, such as volume (raised voice) or accelerometers (banging things or treating them roughly). We suggested objects that detected they were being treated badly could glow red, like raw skin. This also has the side benefit of the objects informing users subtly when they are being used incorrectly.